An Inquiry into the Reasons Why Li Bai's Poems Were Depreciated and Desolated

Li Bai's poems were often belittled and desolated although they were accepted as the Highest Paragon of Tang Dynasty's Poetry with Du Fu's poems together. In ancient time, educating function and writing skill of poetry were most important and people often paid attention to the knowledge but not to the aesthetic value and Li Bai's poems didn't accord with the ancient evaluating standard on Chinese classical poetry. This paper explores into the reasons why this was so at that time and compares Li Bai's poems with Du Fu's.